Many corridos trace their roots
back to medieval times, particularly corridos with universal folkloric
themes such as incest, adultery and other social taboos. These are
themes that find resonance regardless of the time period. The corrido
of Rosita Alvírez is an example of these in which the stain of
dishonor can only be washed away with blood. It seems that this
corrido was seen in several incarnations from the 19th century to the
1930s. Originally, it told the story of a good, but headstrong girl
who meets an undeserved and unfortunate death after refusing to dance
with an older man named Hipólito at a dance.
The filmmakers jacked up this rather thin plot
changing Rosita from a simple but stubborn girl who turns down the wrong
man at the wrong time, to a cold-blooded, heartless seductress. This
Rosita has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever and is played
to a smoldering, kittenish fare-thee-well by María Luisa Zea.
In the film, Rosita arrives in a new town with
her widowed mother after the death of her drunken, philandering father
to live with relatives. In very short order, she manages to break up her
cousin's engagement, and she sets two best friends, Hipólito and
Marcos (who was engaged to her cousin), against each other over her favors.
Meanwhile, as if she hasn't caused enough trouble, Rosita agrees to marry
with a wealthy older man, telling him that when she attends the dance,
Hipólito and Marcos will kill each other, freeing her to marry
the older landowner who promises to give her everything her heart desires.
She also tells him, "Oh, by the way, I plan to continue fooling around
with the local cowboys," and the old man accepts this. At the climatic dance, Hipólito
and Marcos shoot each other up, but neither is fatally wounded, and, during
the melée, Hipólito, turns his gun on Rosita and kills her.
The film ends with Hipólito and Marcos in jail, Hipólito
awaiting execution and Marcos awaiting a very uncertain future trying
to patch up his life and broken engagement. As they sit in the jail,
morose but perfectly coifed, shaved and dressed, Pedro Vargas and his
band sing the final stanzas of the corrido, admonishing women to be virtuous
and men not to kill for love.
This is a interesting and lively motion picture
and well worth watching. It set a box-office record in Mexico City,
and enraged a writer whose foto-novela or comic-book style graphic novella
of this story was the purported inspiration to the script (Yañez
19). The film is filled with lively music, dancing, beautiful scenery,
steamy (for the day) love scenes as well as lots and lots of horsemanship
and rodeo-like events.
What can be said when such a blatant and sexist
twist is added to a classic corrido by changing the title character into
a totally unsympathetic and evil Jezebel? That is hard to assess,
though it is a strong commentary on an overt fear in traditional Mexican
society of a women's sexuality. It certainly makes a more interesting
movie, and gave Miss Zea an unbelievable opportunity to purr, pout, bat
her lashes, spew invective and screech insults. Not a stick of scenery
on the set was left without her teeth marks on it, and she is such a conniving
tramp that she makes Scarlet O'Hara look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
The most violent scene is between Hipólito and Marcos who
have a five minute knock-down, drag-out fight scene, while Hipólito,
drunk and furious, keeps trying to say, "¡Rosita es una
! ¡Rosita es una !"
"Puta" is the only word that he could
have possibly meant.